Downtime
The room was comfortably cool. The walls colored in shades of peacock blue. Three of four lined with shelves from dark wooden floor almost to the eggshell ceiling. A lacy candelabra adding more to the decor than lighting.
The fourth wall rose over a long oaken desk, just inside the door, filled with electronic paraphernalia. The industrious hum of hard drive was punctuated with bursts of cooling fan.
Scattered dots of LED lights winked in blues, reds, and greens as the equipment attended its various tasks. Searching for specific words and phrases across the World Wide Web. Bookmarking and flagging those that matched the criteria set for it.
From the fog gray suede of her chair, Anne Marie MacClarren looked up from her reading. She breathed in the scent of the space. The musk of old paper spiced with a variety of inks, that was subtly interlaced with the ozone of electronic exhalation.
She scanned the rows of scrolls carefully sealed in protective tubes, and old leather-bound books. All well worn yet meticulously maintained. She'd spent countless years finding them, acquiring them, translating them, studying them.
In recent times, countless hours copying the contents to drive, file, and disk. She'd compiled a searchable database from hundreds of years of study and discovery. Now, compacted into silver platters of ones and zeroes.
She leaned back into the cushions, her eyes drawn back to the book in her lap. She chuckled to herself as she indulged in the once forbidden joy of reading for pleasure. Title page: "Fifty Shades of Grey"....
the prompt: You have 450 words to write a fiction or creative non-fiction piece about the forbidden or the taboo.
Giggle. I love that the "taboo" is a book. And your description of her office and her work is really strong!
ReplyDeleteCam, thank you for always being here for me.
DeleteI really had to make myself go into the descriptions. I could see, hear, and smell them. But finding the words is hard for me. I'm always afraid it's too much.
Nice job. Had to chuckled at the ending.
ReplyDeleteI was chuckling as I was writing the ending. ;-)
DeleteThanks for reading.
:) Very well described - the setting felt real. The lacy candelabra meshed well with the title of the book, too!
ReplyDeleteThanks Andrea, I was really trying to create the space.
DeleteAnd I've not even read that book.
Reading your own comments above I have to say the devil is in the details... I LOVE THE DETAILS. The view you provided helps the last line zing in contrast. Well done!
ReplyDeleteThank you! I really had to dig those words out and make myself put them down. I'm glad it all worked.
DeleteSuch a vivid scene. I love the details of the ozone smell of the electronics. That's a touch most would forget to mention I think. Very well done!
ReplyDeleteShelton, thanks so much for dropping by. I'm glad the setting worked. And I know that smell, I'm surrounded by my electronic toys.
DeleteI was interested to read your piece this week, because you mentioned earlier in the week that you worried the description was too much. I don't think so, at all! I feel like I could really sit in that room and be in the right place. I particularly liked this, with the juxtaposition of old books and technology:
ReplyDeleteThe musk of old paper spiced with a variety of inks, that was subtly interlaced with the ozone of electronic exhalation.
Angela, thank you. Anne Marie is rather long lived. So she's finally able to let the machines do her work.
DeleteHa! Great ending. I was all revved up for something truly sinister, like black magic and instead it was that book of all books. Nicely done. You drew me into the room so well, the scene, that it was startling and funny.
ReplyDeleteThank you! All those books on the shelves may be a bit arcane. But she's finally getting a break. ;-)
DeleteSince I love peacock blue, I felt right at home. Loved the ending!
ReplyDeleteThanks! I'm glad you liked the ending, that was really a last minute thought. And yes, I giggled as I wrote it.
DeleteYou did a glorious job with the setting. I could see the room. Setting is hard for me and I love finding writers that do it well.
ReplyDeleteI didn't expect Fifty Shades of Grey at the end there. Nice comedic note.
Thank you! Setting is very hard for me as well. I really had to make myself put the words down. I tend to write very bare bones.
DeleteAnd I was just as tickled about the end myself. It was an afterthought.
Intriguing piece! And very detailed. What genre is it? I liked how you said "eggshell ceiling" and "peacock blue walls" and how the LED lights "winked". Good (and even a little unique!) description gives writing such a deeper feeling, doesn't it?!!
ReplyDeleteThank you! My genre of choice is fantasy/horror. I'm not very horrifying though. Anne Marie has an interesting story going on. I've done several posts with her.
DeleteThat was great. I felt like this was the set up for some sinister spy or espionage type story. Maybe it is, but throwing the bit about 50 Shades of Grey in at the end was the perfect humorous touch to lighten the scene. The one suggestion I have is maybe to add in the word "were" in the sentence that starts out "Three of four lined". It feels like it's missing to me. But that may be just me as well.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading! I thought about that line a lot. Rewrote it with and without the "were". It was just a personal choice to to without it.
Delete